본 연구는 xanthine(X)-xanthine oxidase(XO) system하에서 돼지 난자의 체외성숙과 체외수정에 대한 catalase의 영향을 검토하였다. 그 결과 돼지 난포난자가 X 또는 XO하에서 배양되었을 때, 난포난자의 성숙율은 다른 배양시간에도 불구하고 catalase 첨가 유무에 따른 유의적인 차이를 나타내지 않았다. 그렇지만, X-XO-catalase system하에서 배양한 경우 유의적으로 높은 성숙율을 얻었다(P<0.05). 퇴행난자의 비율은 배양기간이 늘어남에 따라 증가되었으며, 배양 120시간에서는 catalase 첨가시보다 무첨가시에 유의적으로 높았다. 다른 한편으로, 단위발생 난자들이 배양 72시간에 높은 비율로 관찰되었지만, 다양한 배양시간에서 catalase 첨가유무에 따른 차이는 발견되지 않았다. 또 다른 실험에서, 동결-응해된 돼지 정자가 체외수정을 위해 X-XO system으로 처리되었다. 난자투명대에 대한 정자침입율은 none (P<0.05), XO, X+XO하에서 체외수정시 catalase 무첨가시보다 첨가시에 높게 나타났다. 다른 한편으로, 돼지정자가 none, X, XO, X+XO로 처리되었을 때, lipid peroxidation은 catalase 첨가시보다 무첨가시에 높은 비율로 나타났으며, 그 결과 정자침입과 lipid peroxidation에서의 변화가 상반되는 양상을 보였다. 그렇지만, 모든 조건하에서 정자의 sulfhydry (-SH) group의 함량은 catalase 첨가시에 높게 측정되었다. 난자의 투명대에 대한 정자의 접착 정도는 salt-stored 돼지 난자에 대한 정자접착을 통해서 평가되었으며, control group의 경우 X, XO, X+XO group에 비해 높은 정자접착율이 관찰되었다. 그렇지만, catalase 첨가유무에 따른 유의적인 차이는 인정되지 않았다. 본 연구의 결과는 X-XO-catalase system에 대한 난포난자와 정자의 노출이 돼지에서의 체외성숙과 체외수정을 촉진시키는 것으로 생각된다.

A characterization of the permeation and separation using single salt solution was carried out with charged composite membranes. Various charged composite membranes were fabricated by blending an ionic polymer with a nonionic polymer in different ratios. In this study, sodium alginate, chitosan and poly(vinyl alcohol) were employed as anionic, cationic and nonionic polymers, respectively. The permeation and separation behaviors of the aqueous salt solutions have been investigated through the charged composite membranes with various charge densities. As the content of the ionic polymer increased in the membrane, the hydrophilicity of the membrane increased, and pure water flux and the solution flux increased correspondingly, indicating that the permeation performance through the membrane is determined mainly by its hydrophilicity. Electrostatic interaction between the charged membrane and ionic solute molecules, that is, Donnan exclusion, was observed to be attributed to salt rejection to a greater extent, and molecular sieve mechanism was effective for the separation of salts under a similar electrostatic circumstance of solutes.

Embryos derived from pig oocytes matured in mSOF are able to develop to blastocysts after IVF. Experiment 1 evaluated the effects of two maturation media (TCM-199 vs mSOF) on maturation rate, fertilization parameters, including penetration, polyspermy, male pronuclear formation, and the mean number of sperm penetrated per oocyte. Experiment 2 and Experiments 3 examined the effects of two maturation media on zona pellucida solubility and cortical granule distribution by transmissible electron microscopy, respectively. Experiment 4 assessed the effects of two maturation media on the in vitro embryo cleavage rate and development to blastocyst. Lastly, experiment 5 examined the cell number of blastocyst. An effect of media (P<0.05) was detected for mSOF on the mean number of sperm per oocyte. In TCM group, zona digestion time (196.515.5 vs 131.620.1 before IVF, 397.530.3s vs 185.316.4s after IVF, p<0.05) was higher in TCM-199 group. No significant effects of media was observed on cortical granule distribution between two groups by TEM. An effect (P<0.05) was observed on embryo development to blastocyst (16% vs 8%) but not on cleavage rates. No significant effects of media was observed on total cell number of blastocyst. We found that the high mean number of sperm penetrated per oocyte and the weaker zona pellucida on the basis of the digestion time was shown in pig oocytes matured in mSOF, however, porcine oocyte maturation with supplemented synthetic oviduct fluid medium (mSOF) resulted in blastocyst cell numbers comparable to those observed with Tissue Culture Medium 199.

The hormone resistin is associated with typeII diabetes mellitus in rodent model. Resistin impairs glucose tolerance and insulin action. A new class of anti-diabetic drugs were called thiazolidinediones (TZDs) downregulates a resistin which is induced during adipocyte differentiation. But the connection between increased adiposity and resistin remains unknown. The objectives of this study was to clone a mouse resistin cDNA and to generate transgenic mice overexpressing mouse resistin gene. The 555 bp of mouse resistin was amplified from mob cDNAS by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and cloned into pCR(R)/ 2.1 TOPO T-vector. Mouse resistin mRNA on the basis of Genbank sequence (acession no. AF323080). Then, the PCR product was cloned into pTargeTTM/ mammalian expression vector that has pCMV promoter and chimeric intron. Restriction enzyme analysis with BamH I and Not I was carried out to determine an orientation of the insert in the vector. The pCMV-mus/resistin gene was prepared from previous recombinant pTargeTTM/-mus/resistin by digestion of Bgl II, and has used for microinjection into pronuclei of one cell embryos. The microinjected embryos were transfered to pseudopregnant foster-mother. Mouse resistin expression was detected in transgenic F1 mice by Reverse Transcriptase- Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-PCR). Resistin gene expression mouse has heavier body weight which was measured higher level of plasma glucose than that of normal mouse. And in diet-induced experiments, the abdominal fat pads were isolated from each 24h starvation and re-feeding after fasting group mice that were assessed by RT-PCR analysis. In fasting group mice, resistin expression was higher than that of re-feeding group mice. This result suggests that the resistin gene overexpressing mice may be became to obesity and be useful as an animal disease model to be diabetes mellitus caused by insulin resistance of resistin.

Pregnancy block by male pheromones in mice differs in incidence depending on the combination of strains. Female mice of BALB/cA strain mated with BALB/cA males show a 100% pregnancy block when exposed to males of inbred strain DDK shortly after copulation (Chung et al., Biol Reprod 1997). In the present study, BALB/cA females mated with the males of other strains (CBA/J, C3H/HeN, C57BL/6Cr, and IXBL) showed higher pregnancy rates (66.6-87.5%) even when they were exposed to DDK males. In the pharmacological induction of pregnancy block with dopamine agonist (Bromocriptine, 4mg/kg BW), BALB/cA females mated with BALB/cA males showed a 100% pregnancy block. In contrast, BALB/cA females mated with CBA/J, C3H/HeN, and C57BL/6Cr males showed higher pregnancy rates (40-70%). These results suggest that the better pregnancy rate of BALB/cA females mated with alien males may be due to the stronger viability of F 1 embryos. This interpretation was confirmed by an embryo transfer experiment in which a higher implantation rate was observed when BALB/cA embryos grown in BALB/cA females exposed to BALB/cA males were transferred into recipient BALB/cA females exposed to DDK males. These results suggest that the embryonic genotype or viability of the embryo is one factor contributing to the occurrence of pregnancy block by male pheromones in mice.